erskine



@einen tatrs gatrnt @ffice CHRISTOPHER A. ERSKINE, OF PALERMO CENTRE, MAINE.

Letters .Patent No. 73,960, dated February 4, 1868.

vIMPROVED BGG-PRESERVING FRAME.

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TO ALL PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS MAY COME.:

Be it known that I, CHRISTOPHER A. ERSKINE, of Palermo Centre, in the county of Waldo, and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful or Improved Egg-Preserving Frame; and do hereby declare the same to be fully described inthe following specification, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a top view,

Figure 2 a front elevation, and

Figures 3 and 4 are vertical sections of it, they being taken in planes at right angles with each other.

In carrying out myinventiou I so construct the-trays and their supporting frame that the horizontal side ties ofthe said frame may not only serve their purpose in the frame, but also as sides to the trays, each of the trays directly between any four of such ties being constructed with ledges projecting above it at its two ends only. By this method ot' construction I save the necessity ofthe employment ot`side ledges to the trays, and thereby am enabled to lay upon each tray many more eggs than could be placed upon it were it furnished with sides orside ledges fixed on its bottom. The egg-preserving frames, as I ordinarily make them, are constructed about two feet in width, and twenty-tive feet, more or less, in length, the said length being aboutifour feet less than that of the room or apartment in which they are to be placed.

A frame twenty feet in length will take, when constructed in accordance with my invention, about ten dozen more eggs to each tray than it would were the tray to have side ledges. The purposeof such a. frame and its trays is to enable a person to readily turn each of the eggs over from time .to time, in order to prevent them from addliug or becoming injured by resting too long in one position. The trays are arranged at about six inches apart on the supporting frame, so that after each of them may have been supplied with eggs, a person,

by reaching his arm into the frame, and bringing it in contact with the eggs, may rollthem over by friction ci" his hand or arm, all of which he can accomplish with Vgreat ease and dexterityfafter a little practice. By such a. frame thousands of eggs may be elfectually preserved, and one person may take care of or turn in a given time several times the number that he can 'when the eggs are packed in straw or hay, and in boxes, in the usual manner heretofore practised.

v In the drawings, A A A denote the series of trays, each consisting of a tlat board or plane, a, and two ledges, b b, extended up from its opposite ends.' Each tray rests on cross-bars c c c, arranged horizontally, and supported by a series of posts, dd. Furthermore, on and above the said cross-bars, and along thc opposite edges of each tray, other, or tie-bars, c e, are extended from post to post, in manner vas represented, the inner edge ot each of the two bars being ush with the inner edges ofthe posts with which they are connected. Each pair of the tie-bars against each of the trays extends above the bottom of the tray, in manner as represented, and thus -constitltes a boundary to the tray, or means of preventing the escape oi' the eggs therefrom. The supporting frame B of the trays or shelves is thus composed ot' the posts, the Vcross-bars, and the tie-bars, the latter being arranged with respect to the trays, and they beingiconstructed as explained.

What I claim, therefore, as my invention, is

The said egg-supporting frame substantially as described, as made not only with its trays, provided with ledges at their ends, and without any at their sides, but as having the tie-bars arranged with respect to such trays in manner and so as to operate as and for the'purposes as set forth.

C. A. ERSKINE.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. IP. HALE, Jr. 

